intellectual-propertyI’m a bit afraid of opening my own company. I have a great idea but it’s hardly revolutionary. I’d rather not spend loads of money on lawyers or go broke early on if a patent already exists for my product, but I’m not sure how I can protect myself.
What steps can I take to stay safe from patent trolls, and does it matter what country I’m based in? Could I, for example, be sued in the UK for unintentionally infringing a US patent?
THE US-based company answer: There is not much you can do to protect against trolls, but you are not necessarily the profile they will go after. They typically go after the bigger companies with big checkbooks that have a chance at settling for 6 figures because they will need to spend 7 figures on legal fees defending against them.
I would not let them scare you off from starting a company. At a certain point when you are getting traction you can revisit and consider filing your own patents to help provide some defense. USPTO has a 1-year grace period on filing but if you think you have something that is patentable it is probably worth doing a bit of the research. This is a useful link at the USPTO
One way is to create a joint-stock company (translation by wikipedia, I’m Swedish). That way you invest a amount, and that’s all you can lose. If you get sued you will at most lose your initial investment (since your stock might lose all their value). Also, EU does have quite good protection against patent trolls(compared to the US), but simply avoid the risk if you can.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.